Just 31 seconds will separate the top three riders in the Tour de France when they set off from Marcoussis for Paris on Sunday.

Although second-placed Cadel Evans today conceded the race to Alberto Contador, who retained the yellow jersey after a thrilling time-trial on the penultimate day, the gap is narrow enough to provide a chance that the final stage might be more than just the usual procession into the French capital.

Evans - 23 seconds behind Contador - will find it almost impossible to escape the Spaniard or his Discovery team-mate Levi Leipheimer, who is eight seconds further back. Almost impossible, but not completely. Contador will have to be careful not to give his rival any encouragement while Evans was this evening doing his best to write himself off.

“Second at the Tour is very good,” he said. “This year I really trained hard for the Tour, it was my big goal.” Second would be the best result for an Australian, beating the fifth-place finishes of Phil Anderson in 1982 and 1985 which Evans himself matched last year.

After a week in which the future of the Tour de France was called into question following a series of doping scandals, the contest will be a welcome distraction for the race organisers.

Nothing could erase the stain left by Alexandre Vinokourov’s positive test or the sacking of race leader Michael Rasmussen by his team, but the sight of the peloton charging along the Champs Elysees will be a reminder of what the Tour can be. Leipheimer, the American, won his first stage as the quickest rider in the 55.5-kilometre time-trial between Cognac and Angouleme today.

He finished 51 seconds ahead of Evans, narrowing the gap to the Australian to eight seconds. Leipheimer described his first Tour de France stage win as the “best day of my life”.

“I had the time-trial of my life today, I couldn’t help but smile I felt so good," he said. “I can’t believe how fast I was riding - I just felt awesome, I had so much energy. I felt like I could just keep pushing and pushing, I thought I was going to blow up. I feel now I deserve my place on the podium.”

Leipheimer played down his own hopes and insisted he expected Discovery team-mate Contador to stay at the top of the podium in Paris.

“I think tomorrow we’ll just relax, we’ve won the Tour,” he said. Realistically, even if I tried to sprint, Cadel’s the better sprinter.”

Following the ejection of Rasmussen, the race for the podium’s top spot heated up. Contador had an advantage of 1min 50sec over Evans at the start of the day after the Australian gained three seconds on stage 18.

Evans gradually started to eat into Contador’s lead, chipping away at the Spaniard as he went through every checkpoint, eventually knocking off 87 seconds.

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